Soccer Academy: Youngsters urged to watch the World Cup

Young soccer players would have learned a lot by watching Mexico and Brazil in their 0-0 draw Tuesday, especially Guillermo Ochoa of Mexico, who put on a goalkeeping clinic with several great saves.Photo by
Robert Cianflone

The 2014 FIFA World Cup is more than just a source of entertainment for local fans taking in the televised games.

At least it is for some coaches across the Lower Mainland who are using the ongoing matches as lesson plans, training material and inspiration for their youth soccer players.

“By getting them to watch the World Cup, it’s not just for their entertainment, it’s for development purposes,” said Brendan Quarry, director of the girls program at Richmond’s TSS Academy. “Like in any activity, if you want to become a musician or a soccer player, you have to watch and observe and study those who are doing that activity at a high level.”

So for an event as big as the World Cup, Quarry goes beyond asking players to watch matches — he’s created a World Cup pool.

In the pool, his TSS teams are divided into four groups and given research materials so they can get to know the different countries and players. Once they’ve completed the background, they go through a lottery to see who gets to draw first in the draft process. All four teams end up with eight countries and four players each, through which they collect points for wins, ties and even losses — as long as they email Quarry the results and coinciding points by midnight the night of the game.

“We don’t want these kids to just pick these countries and then walk away and not keep track of the tournament, so they keep track of it and if they don’t email us on that day then they don’t get awarded the points,” said Quarry.

Quarry also reminds them to watch “as a student,” noticing tactical and technical aspects of the game like ball mastery, watching how players move off the ball and penetrate passes.

“Don’t passively watch it, watch how the players are receiving the ball, watch how the ball moves around the field,” said Quarry. “A big factor in why we seem to develop hockey players, obviously it’s not just the training, but as a nation, is we’re always watching the game. We need to watch more (soccer).”

This is especially important for Quarry as the director of TSS Academy’s girls program, because girls often don’t watch professional soccer, he said.

“It’s one of the biggest impediments to their development,” said Quarry. “Girls will only watch soccer if it’s the national team, if there’s some sort of patriotism involved.”

And although Canada isn’t competing in the World Cup, it’s still a tournament steeped in nationalism, so “they’re more inclined to watch it ... because there’s this whole pageantry around it and hype,” said Quarry.

“We’ve taken the tournament and sort of attached them to certain countries so they have a vested interest,” said Quarry, adding that it even draws them to watch more than just the popular teams. “(They) start getting together socially and watching their countries play.”

“It’s probably the only time that I ever see girls actually talking about soccer when they’re at training ... it ends up being quite successful in getting them to really watch a lot of soccer.”

Meanwhile, other clubs incorporate the World Cup by just providing a space for players to talk about matches, like at Coquitlam Metro Ford Soccer Club’s weekly academy sessions.

For the first 10 minutes of each practice, head coach Alfredo Valente will “check-in” with players to see who’s been following the tournament.

“It’s good, they’re excited and actually following the results,” said Valente, adding that the biggest advantage for them is just seeing “the passion for the game.”

“Living in Canada, we’ve got hockey, we’ve got baseball … we’ve got so many other sports,” he said. “In other countries soccer is the number one sport … the fans and the players and the coaches everyone around those teams they’re so passionate about the game.”

So by watching the World Cup, that’s something his players can witness.

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